WASHINGTON — Defense attorneys on Saturday lambasted U.S. indictments against decorated war veterans for deadly 2007 shootings as Iraqis welcomed the charges against five Blackwater guards in a case that fueled anti-Americanism and roiled diplomacy with Baghdad.
Charges against Blackwater security guards will be unsealed Monday, more than a year after the fatal shootings of 17 Iraqi civilians. Iraqis hope the charges will finally bring justice and improve relations with the United States after the gruesome slayings on Sept. 16, 2007.
Defense lawyers say the case has unfairly tarnished the images of the Blackwater guards. Each man has received honors for his service in some of the world’s most dangerous places, from Bosnia and Afghanistan to Iraq. The five were to surrender to the FBI on Monday, when the Justice Department plans to unseal the charges against them.
“These are indictments that never should have been brought,” said Mark Hulkower, an attorney for Army veteran Paul Slough of Keller, Texas.
Attorney David Schertler, who represents former Marine Dustin Heard of Knoxville, Tenn., said the guards “were defending themselves and their comrades who were being shot at and receiving fire from Iraqis they believed to be enemy insurgents.”
According to their attorneys, the other men charged are: Donald Ball, a former Marine from West Valley City, Utah; Evan Liberty, a former Marine from Rochester, N.H.; and Nick Slatten, a former Army sergeant from Sparta, Tenn.
A sixth suspect was in negotiations to plead guilty to lesser charges in exchange for his cooperation against his former colleagues. Documents related to that matter remain sealed as well.
Iraqis said Saturday that they look forward to the trial.
Slough, Ball, Heard, Liberty and Slatten have been under investigation since a convoy of heavily armed Blackwater contractors opened fire in Baghdad’s Nisoor Square. The dead included children.
Witnesses say the shooting was unprovoked.
Blackwater, hired by the State Department to guard U.S. diplomats, says its guards were responding to a car bombing and were ambushed by insurgents.
An Iraqi government spokesman, Ali al-Dabbagh, said Baghdad welcomed any attempt to “hold the criminals accountable for their crime.” He said the Iraqi government has hired lawyers to seek money for the families of the victims.
The charges come after 14 months of investigative missteps, legal wrangling and fierce debate within the government — and the Justice Department itself.
Among the hurdles the government faces is whether U.S. law permits civilian contractors to be charged in the U.S. for crimes committed overseas.
